Big Tech’s new recruiting hurdle: Why bringing international talent to Seattle is now more expensive

Two new rules governing H-1B visas went into effect last year, aimed at addressing two persistent criticisms of the program: that foreign workers were taking jobs that Americans wanted, and that visa holders were actually being hired by their employers to stay in the country.

So do the changes solve the problems as expected? Yes, says one expert.

“It’s working as intended,” said Xiao Wang, founder and CEO of Boundless Immigration, a Seattle-based startup that helps companies and workers navigate the immigration process.

But there is a new challenge: the system gives employers a strong incentive to offer higher wages – not because the job requires it, but to improve the chances of their workers in the lottery. And that makes foreign employment more expensive across the board.

The new rules replaced a random, proportional lottery with a weighted system that gives high-wage H-1B applicants four times better odds than low-wage workers. Employers also now pay a $100,000 fee for each new complaint. The changes come as layoffs in the tech sector have raised new questions about whether the program is displacing American workers — one of the criticisms the new rules were designed to address.

Boundless, whose clients include companies applying for H-1B workers, has released a report on the 2026 visa application cycle while federal data is pending. The findings show that scaling wages has a real effect – albeit with a trade-off:

• High-paid employees were selected at much higher rates than entry-level employees: 68% of Level III and 64% of Level IV employees were selected, compared to 40% of Level I and 36% of Level II. That pattern suggests the system is increasingly targeting hard-to-fill roles. Under last year’s random lottery, unlimited customer approval ratings ranged from 32% to 49% across income levels with no consistent pattern.
• But the $100,000 figure is prohibitive for rural hospitals and health centers trying to hire doctors and nurses. That’s also true for startups eager to hire international talent, such as foreign-born founders who recruit from their social networks.

“This cycle was very different than last year,” said Priyanka Kulkarni, founder and CEO of Casium, a Seattle-based immigration services company. “Enrollments are down, and the weighted lottery is doing what it was designed to do. Level III and Level IV selection rates are both over 50%.

Many of the early-stage companies used by Casium came out “in good shape,” he added.

Seattle-area technology companies remain among the program’s largest users. Amazon ranked first among all US employers with 13,265 approved applications by 2025, while Microsoft ranked third with 6,258, according to the organization’s data. Meta came second and an Indian IT outsourcing company placed fourth.

Indian-born workers have long dominated the program, accounting for 71% of visas approved by the end of 2023-24. Whether that share will change under the new rules remains to be seen.

Wang cautioned that companies and workers are still adjusting their strategies, and he expects the numbers to continue moving. The government has indicated that only 15% of Level I applicants will be accepted – a share that may be significantly lower than what Boundless saw in the first round.

At the same time, wage restrictions may pressure employers to raise wages to move workers to higher levels and improve their lottery chances.

For example, in King County – which includes Seattle, Redmond and Bellevue – the annual salary for a software engineer is $117,000, while a Level IV worker in the same area earns $212,000. That gap could also pressure companies to find H-1B hires in lower-cost cities, choosing Cincinnati over Seattle or San Francisco to beat the wage offered at lower costs.

For highly skilled workers, however, the new system may be a draw. Better opportunities for high earners make the visa process more predictable, which can attract top-level international talent that avoids the uncertainty of the system.

“Suddenly, it has become a little bit less to be able to live in this country and it is expected that you can live in this country if you have a certain income level,” said Wang.